Let’s
start with breakfast…
We’d
purchased a glazed lemon Bundt cake at our local Food Lion and we had fresh
strawberries, Readi-Whip plus half and half milk on hand. So we started out two recent mornings with
strawberry shortcake. I drizzled quite a
bit of half and half on my chunk of Bundt cake before topping it with the
strawberries and whipped cream.
Don’t
judge us…after all, it was fruit, dairy and grain for breakfast!
You may
not remember those beautiful boneless pork chops (ala ‘enhanced’ Olive Garden
Ranch Dressing) and roasted potatoes that I posted a couple of days ago. We had leftover pork and potatoes and I also discovered a bit of leftover seasoned taco
meat and some Mexican ‘taco blend’ shredded cheese in the refrigerator… So I
combined all of it in a frying pan and heated it up. Tasty!
Sorry to disappoint Big Dude at www.bigdudesrambling.blogspot.com,
but no eggs on top this time…
But I
made up for the lack of eggs on my pork chop, potato and taco creation with
this breakfast. This time I had some
leftover tuna casserole so I heated it up in the frying pan…with a bit more
cheese and spice. After developing a
little ‘cheese crust’, I plated the leftovers with a couple of free range eggs
from Ingles Supermarket. It was an
excellent breakfast!
Now for
the Big Bird!
Laurie
captured these photos. That really big
bird is a Black Vulture! It had perched
on one of our big boulders in the front yard.
We had rain the day before so one of the boulder’s hollowed out
depressions was full of water. Time for
a drink! Laurie noted that it seemed to
have a damaged leg…
When the
vulture wasn’t drinking or just chilling on the boulder, it spent quite a bit
of time sunning…drying out its wings. These
birds have a wing span of up to 5 feet 6 inches and they can weigh up to 6
lbs. 6 oz.
The
American black vulture’s range extends from the southeastern United States down
to Central Chile and Uruguay in South America.
They are nature’s garbage collectors.
They do not have a great sense of smell so they rely on keen eyesight to
spot carrion, their primary choice of food.
Family loyalty is critical. They
usually roost and feed in family groups, driving away vultures who aren’t
related. Their talons are blunt and they
aren’t good at grasping. Black vultures
are monogamous, staying with their mates for many years.
American
black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Act of 1918. However, due to their dietary habits, you don’t
want them roosting or mating on your roof.
They will create a nasty mess if left alone.
…leaving the
carrion and vultures behind, how about some dinner!
Many
nights we just eat something simple. In
this instance it was half of one of the giant top quality hot dogs that we’d
purchased from Costco. We ‘sided’ our
hot dogs with some of the new Cheez-It Snap’d thin crackers. Laurie is a bit of a traditionalist…using
yellow mustard on her hot dog. As you can see above, I am a non-conformist
that uses (gasp!) Heinz Tabasco Ketchup on his hot dogs!
By way of
example, for another simple recent dinner Laurie had a big bowl of Bar Harbor
Clam Chowder. We do add a little butter
and some spices while heating up the soup... I also had the clam chowder with a cheese
sandwich on English muffin bread on the side. Yes, I did put Tabasco in my chowder!
Sadly,
our gas grill is dead. I need to have it
taken away and replaced with a new one.
In any case, I’ve been grilling/frying meat in the house. In this case, it was a couple of small strip
steaks coated in Costco’s Steak Seasoning.
I did overcook them a bit…with just a faint bit of pink in the middle,
but they were still good. For our side we had a slice of buttered bakery bread and Laurie baked a nice butternut squash.
Add Amish butter, a little salt and some pepper and the squash was a winner.
The big question
is why, oh why, did Costco stop making and selling their Steak Seasoning! It is the best ever… We use it to coat hamburgers and even baked
potatoes, but it’s almost gone! Not good…
Just
click on any of the photos to enlarge them.
Thanks
for stopping by to see if we’re still alive and kicking!
Stay Safe
and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
I believe you are eating well while hunkered down - all of the breakfast meals look outstanding. We bought some strawberries yesterday so I'm thinking shortcake as well and mine will also include some milk.
ReplyDeleteI think you are eating so good David !
ReplyDeleteI find amazing these pictures of the black bird !!take care David !
Sorry about the previous deleted comment, but I had made a statement that was incorrect.
ReplyDeleteNo judgement here, David, on these meals and nothing wrong with a breakfast that has fruit and dairy. The pork chop, potato and taco breakfast was quite unusual, but looked good. We have often had soup for dinner along with some fresh baked bread.